Quincy Gardner shares a quick tip for using a high pass filter effect that will allow you to selectively sharpen areas of your shot in After Effects. Photoshop has a high pass filter readily available, but there is nothing similar in Ae, however that doesn’t stop you from being able to make your own with some of Ae’s available tools.

In After Effects, I will show you how to use high pass sharpening just like in PhotoshopQuincy Gardner – AETuts.com

This is a simple technique, but very helpful if you don’t want to move masks around in your footage to create a selective sharpening effect.

The High Pass Filter effect in After Effects is handily re-created by using a duplicate of the footage, tinted to black and white, and treated with the Find Edges Effect.

This can then be used as a mask to determine which sections of the underlying image will be sharpened. Check out the tutorial for Creating a High Pass Sharpening in After Effects here